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Average User Score: 7 (84 sources)

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jui5

-1

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a new adaption of the classic that everyone knows. It was a great way to put Shakespeare back in the minds of the younger generation. good idea. Though it was a little different to see it modernized.

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Posted nov 6, 2008 7:32 am pt

prevent1984

-1

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Simply an amazing adaptation of Romeo + Juliet! It's modern, it's exciting, but the real kicker is this - all the dialogue matches the original Shakespeare play. That's what really makes this movie worth watching. If you never could quite follow...
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Simply an amazing adaptation of Romeo + Juliet! It's modern, it's exciting, but the real kicker is this - all the dialogue matches the original Shakespeare play. That's what really makes this movie worth watching. If you never could quite follow Romeo + Juliet because of the dialogue, this movie is for you. You get the original dialogue, with a movie that helps you follow it the whole way. DiCaprio is amazing in this performance.

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Posted sep 29, 2008 10:52 pm pt

arie0586

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I loved it. The way the directer interpreted Shakespeare to a younger and modern crowed was unbelievable. I absolutely loved that they kept the language in the same that Shakespeare wrote it, making it all that much better because it has the feel...
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I loved it. The way the directer interpreted Shakespeare to a younger and modern crowed was unbelievable. I absolutely loved that they kept the language in the same that Shakespeare wrote it, making it all that much better because it has the feel of Shakespeare. There is kind of a conflict between what you're hearing and what you're seeing that makes you interested and curious as to what is going on. It almost sort of fades away after the second time you watch it because you know the story and what's going on and how it ends so you're basically watching just for the visuals. That's why they needed to be off the charts and over the top with their acting and colors and visuals so that you know what part of the story your at and what's going on because you might not be able to understand the language. It is a movie for the eyes but for me I understood what was being said because if you just listen you can easily understand it. I am not a Shakespeare fan personally but I respect him as a legend because so many are influence by him and consider him to be, so he is. The directer seemed to be and through him I can see the brilliance in Shakespeare's work.

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Posted jun 17, 2008 1:04 am pt

LSUstinks11

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This is the worst movie I've ever seen.I was at Blockbuster's a few weeks back and this version of the movie was avalible.Now I'm currently watching this piece of abomination with my classmates.

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Posted mar 8, 2008 1:24 pm pt

jbeauchamp17

-1

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Hideous. No other word can describe this 'attempt' at recreating Shakespeare's original work, which already has too many versions. The modern transformation - setting it in the current world, but with Shakespeare's language was atrocious. The use...
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Hideous. No other word can describe this 'attempt' at recreating Shakespeare's original work, which already has too many versions. The modern transformation - setting it in the current world, but with Shakespeare's language was atrocious. The use of guns, inscribed with 'short sword' still immensely irritates me. But then I loathe Baz Luhrmann and his style. This is no exception. And as for Leonardo diCaprio - he simply couldn't act at this stage of his 'career' if his life depended on it, which is a shame as he was great in Blood Diamond (2007) when he had matured more. Avoid. Avoid. Avoid.

Avoid.

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Posted mar 8, 2008 8:36 am pt

Jeric-Ho

-1

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We watched this in school, and i liked it straight away, i like the olde english with the upto date story, i also loved the fact that all of the guns were called swords, and rapiers, making it technically a sword fight with bullets! =) i quite...
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We watched this in school, and i liked it straight away, i like the olde english with the upto date story, i also loved the fact that all of the guns were called swords, and rapiers, making it technically a sword fight with bullets! =) i quite liked the Romeo and Juliet story anyway, then they brought it right upto date with this film and it is awesome!

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Posted jul 10, 2007 5:25 am pt

jimmy_the_pipe

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Well, this movie is f&&&ed up. (I say that because we watched it in highschool, but I guess I didn't notice how f&&&ed up it was.)

Some of the strangeness; Gun battle at a gas station, followed by explosions,...
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Well, this movie is f&&&ed up. (I say that because we watched it in highschool, but I guess I didn't notice how f&&&ed up it was.)

Some of the strangeness; Gun battle at a gas station, followed by explosions, riots, SWAT helicopters. Romeo mooning around the red light district. A cross-dressing, possibly gay Mercutio. Romeo + Exctasy ... .. Just a whole bunch of weird stuff. Not all bad, but not entirely... at parts it seemed like a bad crime movie.

If you have an open-mind, it's a really , uh, 'creative' interpretation of Shakespeare's play. (I watched for about 20 minutes, then I got freaked out and stopped it. .. That, and I kept mixing up Leonardo Demagio with the lead actress, because it's really creepy that he has the face and voice of a child.)

... On the plus side, the entire script is there, so you don't have to worry about some idiot script-writers cranking out another Hollywood 'gem'. Watch it if you're bored, but don't rent it unless you have a coupon that expires tomorrow.

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Posted may 25, 2007 10:21 am pt

saxa246

-1

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Weird with the ols English and modern story. A little too absurd.

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Posted may 10, 2007 5:19 am pt

amauriel

-1

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I did not like Romeo + Juliet very much. I think that my rating was even a little too generous. I thought this movie's take on Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" was a little weird.

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Posted feb 25, 2007 5:35 am pt

whereareyou890

-1

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I saw this movie last year and really hated it. I didn't like the present setting with the classic language. Now, I am reading the book in school and i think I will come to appreciate the movie better when I can understand it ,etc. When I am done...
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I saw this movie last year and really hated it. I didn't like the present setting with the classic language. Now, I am reading the book in school and i think I will come to appreciate the movie better when I can understand it ,etc. When I am done with the book I will watch the movie again and see how much I like it.

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Posted feb 13, 2007 10:23 am pt

• [+] Rolling Stone
  
  100
  Amid the clamor from outraged purists and Shakespeare spinning in his Stratford-on-Avon, England, grave, you should notice that Luhrmann and his two bright angels have shaken up a 400-year-old play without losing its touching, poetic innocence.

  by Peter Travers | Read Full Review »
• [+] Slate
  
  90
  It may be the most visually imaginative Shakespeare film since Akira Kurosawa's "Ran", and certainly one of the more operatic Hollywood creations of recent years.

  by Alex Ross | Read Full Review »
• [+] Austin Chronicle
  
  89
  This Romeo & Juliet is a rich visual feast, besotted with the fervor of its acrobatic camerawork and kinetic staging and its mind-bending aggregation of unrelated but resonant fragments of 20th-century iconography.

  by Marjorie Baumgarten | Read Full Review »
• [+] Empire
  
  80
  Baz Luhrmann takes the audience on a unique ride through one of the Bard's best-known texts, illuminating the story, occasionally subjugating the language but always delivering a vision that is bold, brassy, hugely inventive and accessible and, in a strange way, just right.

  by Bob McCabe | Read Full Review »
• [+] The Onion (A.V. Club)
  
  75
  For all the hubbub, the film succeeds in relating Shakespeare to modern times, thanks mainly to the use of energetic pop music and the gameness of the performers.

  by Noel Murray | Read Full Review »
• [+] TV Guide
  
  75
  As the doomed lovers, DiCaprio and Danes -- both luminous, limpid-eyed beauties -- are allowed to deliver delicate, unpretentious performances, and their love becomes a modest, frighteningly fragile oasis amidst a tawdry saturnalia of noise and glitter.

  by Staff (Not Credited) | Read Full Review »
• [+] USA Today
  
  75
  Despite implied fidelity, we might as well be watching William Shakespeare's The Cable Guy. Yet the film's skewed stylistic flourishes capture enough of the original's spirit to provoke more respect than rejection. [01Nov1996, Pg. 01.D]

  by Mike Clark | Read Full Review »
• [+] ReelViews
  
  75
  While such a loud, brash interpretation may not go down in cinematic history as the definitive version of the play, hopefully it will open a few eyes and widen the audience willing to venture into any movie bearing the credit "based on the play by William Shakespeare."

  by James Berardinelli | Read Full Review »
• [+] Christian Science Monitor
  
  75
  Moving the action to a modern American city, the hyperactive movie seems goofy and gimmicky at first, but it acquires real power when the cinematography settles down enough for Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes to do some excellent acting.

  by David Sterritt | Read Full Review »
• [+] Los Angeles Times
  
  70
  Juiced to the max and drenched in style, this "Romeo," mad about its image-a-minute visual agenda, is sure to infuriate as much as it delights. But the film can't be bothered to slow down for your reaction, and it never forgets its duty to be alive on the screen. [1 Nov 1996, pg.F1]

  by Kenneth Turan | Read Full Review »
• [+] Time
  
  70
  Luhrmann, an Australian who pretty much let his camera go nuts in the egregiously overrated "Strictly Ballroom", here makes reasonable, imaginative decisions that are, arguably, true to Shakespeare.

  by Richard Corliss | Read Full Review »
• [+] Washington Post
  
  70
  For all of its departures, Luhrmann's largely successful reinterpretation is far from irreverent. He takes liberties with the world, but never the words of this achingly beautiful love story.

  by Rita Kempley | Read Full Review »
• [+] The New York Times
  
  60
  Mr. Luhrmann's frenetic hodgepodge actually amounts to a witty and sometimes successful experiment, an attempt to reinvent "Romeo and Juliet" in the hyperkinetic vocabulary of post-modern kitsch. This is headache Shakespeare, but there's method to its madness.

  by Janet Maslin | Read Full Review »
• [+] Entertainment Weekly
  
  58
  Romeo & Juliet is a series of spectacular production designs posing as a motion picture.

  by Owen Gleiberman | Read Full Review »
• [+] Variety
  
  50
  Although arresting in spots, it falls far short of bringing out the full values of the play, and doesn't approach the emotional resonance of Franco Zeffirelli's immensely popular 1968 screen version.

  by Todd McCarthy | Read Full Review »